Surgery and Ethics

Six years ago, Cami and I had been married for abut a year and a half, Ben was six months old. A few weeks before, Cami had gone to see the Optometrist to get fitted for some new glasses, and for some reason had been gone for nearly four hours (the Eye Doc was literally a block away). I tried calling several times, but there was no answer. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement. And those who know me best will also know it was because I hate being late.

A few minutes before my drop dead leaving time, Cami walked into the house. Because of the dilation she couldn’t see her phone to answer it or to text me. Okay. There’s more…

The reason she had been late is she had been sent for an emergency MRI. On her brain. On which there was a rather larger tumor.

I think that my heart stopped for a moment. I know that I didn’t go to work that day. Several trips to UCSF later, just after New Years Day

My view of the surgery

2011, Cami went into surgery while I waited with my parents, my oldest daughter and two of Cami’s best friends. For hours. Twelve to be exact. Dad and I watched the Bowl Game with Stanford’s Andrew Luck proving that he would be the 1st Round Pick. I didn’t pay as much attention to the game as I did to my phone and the information desk. Eventually even that closed, there was still no word.

Finally I was told I could go and see her. Only to be told by a rather rude floor receptionist that I could not. Then her surgeon ran into us arguing and he said, yes I could. She looked like a Conehead. But she was alive and well. And the next morning when I walked in the most remarkable thing I saw was Cami, our daughter and her best friend all standing around with cell phones texting.

I’ve been on a submarine, underwater, on fire. I’ve jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. I ridden a bus on the Road to Jericho.

The most afraid I have ever been was that day in San Francisco.

And I am ever so glad that it worked out okay, and that the Docs at UCSF were her Docs. Sure, it cost us $12,000. But it worth a hundred times that.

If you thought yesterday was strange, with the “rank and file” GOP voting for a rule change to defund the Congressional “Ethics Office,” then strap in, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The story of the Office, which I would be willing to bet that until yesterday 95% of Americans had no idea even existed, was reported as Republicans hating Ethics doing away with a mighty watchdog designed to make sure that Congresspeople behave themselves. Of course, the truth is far from that. Much like the famous California “Ethics Stand Down,” the office only came into being AFTER some Congressmen got sent to jail for being douchebags a few years ago. How many has it sent to prison or even punished at all since then?

Look the move was ill-advised. In the big scheme of money wasting in Congress, the Office wasn’t even a drop in the bucket. Given that several GOP Congressmen are now trying to bring back earmarks, grandstanding on a useless office that has accomplished almost nothing but supposedly over watches Congressional Ethics was probably the wrong place to start and the wrong way to go about it. They had to know that the Media would attack it, that the Democrats would attack it, and that the President-Elect, not really willing to have a fight over a small, meaningless office manned by former Congresspeople, would attack it. And they all did.

Stand by for a whole lot more of this kind of thing.

Next up, the plan to save Obamacare (he loves that name!). The outgoing President is meeting with Hill Democrats to “protect his signature legislation.” Frankly, he doesn’t need to worry about it. Even if the House passes a repeal (again), the Senate will block it since there is no nuclear option in the GOP arsenal. Lastly, the GOP doesn’t really want to repeal it anyway, they want to replace it with something that will buy votes for them. Trust me, if by some miracle the ACA is dismantled, it will be replaced by an even bigger government program that will move ever closer to single payer. So all you people threatening to move to Norway or Cuba can just relax.